E 
18 


BANCROFT 

LIBRARY 

<• 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


1 


BASKETRY 


OF  THK 


COAST  AND  ISLANDS 


OF  THE 


PACIFIC,  ETC. 


EXHIBITED  APRIL,  1896,  AT  THE 
[PORTLAND  LIBRARY. 


OF 


ANCIENT  ART  AND  CUSTOM. 

COL.  JAMES  JACKSON,  u.  S.  A. 

Pottery  making  and  basket  weaving  are  as  old  as  the 
human  race.  As  far  back  as  there  are  any  relics  of  human 
ity  are  found  the  traces  of  these  industries,  supplying  no 
doubt  a  very  positive  human  need.  From  the  graves  of 
the  mound  builders,  from  Etruscan  tombs — far  beyond  the 
dawn  of  Roman  power — from  the  ruins  of  Cyclopean  con 
struction,  Chaldean  antiquities  and  from  Egyptian  cata 
combs  come  the  evidences  of  this  manufacture. 

Aboriginal  occupation  of  the  American  continents 
seems  to  be  as  old,  if  not  older,  than  that  of  either  Europe 
or  Asia,  and  when  we  look  upon  the  baskets  and  pottery 
gathered  here  we  behold  the  results  of  an  industry  that 
originated  in  the  very  dawn  of  human  existence  and  has 
been  continued  with  but  little  change  down  to  the  present 
time.  Our  word  basket  has  itself  changed  but  little  from 
its  original,  the  Welsh  "basgawd"  meaning  literally  a 
weaving,  or  putting  together,  of  splinters.  The  ancient 
Welsh,  or  Britons,  were  expert  basket  makers,  and  Roman 
annals  tell  us  that  the  halls  of  wealthy  Roman  citizens  were 
decorated  with  the  beautiful  and  costly  product  of  their 
handiwork.  Made  Yrom  whatever  substances  were  most 
appropriate  or  convenient,  they  have  been  shaped  by  the 
needs  and  decorated  by  the  fancy  or  superstitions  of  bar 
baric  or  semi-civilized  peoples,  and  have  served  all  purposes 
from  plates  to  dwelling  houses. 

In  all  countries  and  amongst  all  peoples  they  have  had 
much  the  same  shape  and  uses;  their  similarity  seems  to 
have  been  the  result  of  a  common  evolution  of  the  human 
mind  to  supply  a  common  need,  like  causes  and  like  needs 
producing  similar  results  and  similar  construction.  In  a 
country  where  the  grasses  are  tough  and  pliable,  like  the 
sea-island  grasses  of  the  Aleutian  archipelago,  baskets  have 
mostly  been  constructed  from  such  fibre  and  are  soft  and 


4  BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

pliable,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  bags.  Where  the  lithe 
willow,  or  Osier,  abounds,  both  its  branch  and  bark  have 
been  used,  the  larger  stems  forming  the  frame  and  the 
lighter  twigs  the  filling;  these  baskets  generally  stand 
upright  and  take  the  shape  of  pots,  jars  and  vases,  accord 
ing  to  their  purpose.  The  fibre  of  the  Yucca — the  soap 
plant  or  Spanish  bayonet — and  many  of  the  cacti  have  been 
used  in  this  manufacture.  The  keen-sighted  Indian  women 
readily  finds  in  the  mountain  valleys  and  along  ihe  water 
courses  the  proper  material  to  make  into  the  plastic  wands 
which  she  so  deftly  weaves  into  these  graceful  vessels. 
They  are  very  skillful  at  splitting  the  stems  of  the  willow, 
the  osier,  the  sauvis,  the  swamp  ash,  the  vine  maple  and 
other  long-fibred,  quick-growing  plants,  and  preserving  this 
material  for  use  when  needed.  The  proper  season  for  gath 
ering  the  material  is  when  the  stalk  has  just  completed  its 
growth  and  before  the  sap  hardens  into  woody  substance. 
The  long  withes  split  from  the  rods  are  rolled  up  and  pro 
tected  from  too  much  heat  or  moisture  ;  just  before  using 
they  are  thoroughly  soaked  in  water  and  woven  while  wet 
and  soft.  This  plastic  woof  is  so  firmly  beaten  down  that 
a  new  basket,  of  the  finer  makes,  will  hold  water  for  some 
time  ;  to  make  them  permanent  water  jars,  either  for  house 
hold  use  or  for  transporting  water  on  their  journeys,  the 
interstices  are  filled  with  pitch  from  pine  or  fir  trees.  The 
wide-topped  baskets  are  sometimes  called  corn  baskets,  and 
were  used  to  gather  and  hold  the  crop  of  Maize  which  was 
indigenous  to  America  and  the  great  staple  of  food  ;  they 
were  also  used  to  collect  the  Pinion  nut  and  sweet  Acorn 
from  the  Pine  forests  and  Oak  groves  of  New  Mexico, 
Arizona  and  Old  Mexico,  and  also  the  Camas  and  Wocus 
of  the  Northern  Indians.  The  shallower  baskets  were 
used  to  hold  meal  and  to  mix  their  bread  in  ;  the  plaques 
as  plates  to  hold  food.  Indians,  in  their  native  state,  either 
sedentary  or  nomadic,  never  sit  at  a  table  to  eat  ;  when 
they  don't  use  their  fingers  entirely  they  take  their  food 
on  a  plaque,  holding  the  plaque  on  their  knees.  The  small 
bowl-like  baskets  are  used  interchangeably  for  head  cover- 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.  5 

ings  for  the  squaws  or  drinking  cups,  and  are  very  handy 
for  either. 

The  decorations  of  these  Indian  baskets,  when  not 
wholly  conventional  in  design,  are  rude  attempts  at  pictur 
ing  objects  familiar  to  them  or  representing  some  of  their 
beliefs  or  superstitions.  On  an  Oraibe  plaque  is  a  repre 
sentation  of  a  thunder  cloud  and  snakes  approaching  it  to 
plead  for  rain  for  the  little  farms  traced  below — the  snake 
being  their  intercessor  with  the  Rain  God.  These  attempts 
are  mere  suggestions  of  what  they  intend,  and  would  never 
be  understood  by  persons  unfamiliar  with  their  ways  and 
customs.  On  another  Oraibe  plaque  is  a  representation  of 
their  corn,  and  a  Chemopavi  plaque  attempts  a  picture  of 
the  sunrise,  or  sunburst.  The  decoration  of  a  Navajo 
basket  shows  a  channel  or  opening  running  straight  across 
the  design  ;  that  is  to  let  the  evil  spirit  out  of  the  meal .  A 
Navajo  woman  would  not  expect  much  success  in  her  bread 
making  if  this  opening  were  omitted.  On  a  large  Apache 
olla  is  a  representation  of  mountain  tops,  or  peaks,  and 
deer  jumping  from  crag  to  crag.  On  a  basket  made  by  one 
of  the  family  of  the  notorious  ' '  Kid  ' '  are  figures  intended 
to  be  Navajo  Indians.  The  Apaches  and  Navajos  not  being 
on  the  best  of  terms,  the  Apache  female  who  built  this 
basket  made  their  tribal  enemies  as  hideous  as  she  knew 
how.  The  zig-zag  lines  on  a  number  of  baskets  are 
intended  to  be  representations  of  jagged  lightning.  This 
is  a  favorite  decoration  for  both  baskets  and  blankets. 
Chain  lightning  is  very  vivid  and  appalling  in  the  summer 
storms  of  Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  and  seems  to  have 
made  a  great  impression  on  the  native's  mind.  Some  of 
the  customs  and  _  ceremonial  observances  of  the  Pueblo 
Indians  are  exceedingly  curiors.  Their  domestic  polity  is 
very  ancient.  The  tribes  are  divided  into  clans,  or  "gens, " 
as  they  are  mostly  called — named  for  different  animals,  such 
as  the  ''Antelope,"  the  "Bear,"  the  "Rabbit,"  the 
"Eagle,"  the  "Crow,"  the  "Snake."  Marriages  are 
strictly  exogamous;  that  is,  persons  belonging  to  one  gens 
are  not  permitted  to  intermarry.  The  woman  is  a  very 


6  BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

important  person  in  their  domestic  economy.  With  them 
the  Earth  is  the  great  Mother,  the  incarnation  of  femininity, 
and  so  the  woman  builds  and  owns  the  houses  made  of 
earth  and  owns  the  farms.  Growth  is  a  male  principle,  and 
so  the  men  cut  and  haul  the  roof  timbers  from  the  moun 
tains  and  assist  in  taking  care  of  the  flocks  and  growing 
crops.  The  woman  selects  her  spouse,  and  their  children 
belong  to  her  gens  and  not  to  his ;  descent  is  always  through 
the  female  line.  Their  "church,"  or  place  of  religious 
rites,  is  an  underground  room  or  cellar,  scooped  out  of  the 
basaltic  rock  on  which  the  pueblos  are  built,  and  generally 
from  twenty  to  forty  feet  in  diameter;  the  top  is  covered 
with  timbers  and  matting  on  which  is  a  layer  of  earth, 
leaving  a  "manhole,"  through  which  a  ladder  affords  the 
means  of  ingress  and  egress.  In  this  "Khiva,"  as  the 
Moquis  call  it,  their  religious  ceremonies  and  rites  of  initia 
tion  into  the  different  orders  are  performed. 

Every  man  is  born  into  an  order,  but  advancement  in  it 
is,  like  taking  the  degrees  in  Masonry,  a  matter  of  study 
and  practice,  accompanied  by  much  ceremony  and  the  jug 
glery  of  priest-craft.  The  religion  of  the  Moquis  is  a 
Nature  worship,  and  the  Sun  their  principal  deity;  next  in 
importance  in  this  arid  region  is  the  Rain  God.  The  pro 
pitiation  of  this  deity  is  the  Snake  dance,  one  of  their  most 
notable  ceremonies.  Ten  days  before  the  August  full 
moon  the  runners  go  out  to  collect  snakes  for  this  rite,  and 
usually  bring  in  from  fifty  to  a  hundred  of  all  kinds  and 
sizes.  These  are  placed  in  the  Khiva,  which  has  been  pre 
pared  for  this  ceremony  by  dividing  it  into  sections  with 
lines  of  cornmeal  blessed  by  the  priests  and  called  ''sacred 
meal."  One  of  these  sections  represents  the  altar,  and  is 
marked  out  with  wavy  lines  of  meal  to  denote  rain  clouds, 
and  zig-zag  lines  of  different  colored  meal  to  represent  the 
lightning,  each  color  being  a  prayer  for  some  particular 
crop.  The  snakes  are  herded  over  to  one  side  of  the  Khiva 
by  some  of  the  old  men  who,  armed  with  wands  of  eagle 
feathers  (which  the  snakes  greatly  fear),  keep  watch  and 
ward  night  and  day  over  the  wriggling  mass,  brushing 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.  7 

them  back  to  their  corner  whenever  they  exhibit  a  disposi 
tion  to  stray.  The  stench  soon  becomes  fearful;  it  does  not 
seem  to  offend  the  nostrils  of  those  who  participate  in  the 
rites,  but  a  white  man  seldom  cares  to  encounter  it  more 
than  once.  Throughout  the  week  the  ceremony  of  initia 
tion  into  the  degrees  of  the  snake  order  proceeds  along  with 
the  decoration  of  the  Khiva  and  the  preparation  of  the  bodies 
of  the  dancers  for  the  final  ceremony  and  their  fortification 
against  snake  bites  by  drinking  a  liquid  antidote  prepared 
by  the  medicine  man. 

Each  evening  the  snakes  are  taken  up  one  by  one  and 
given  a  sponge  bath  of  some  narcotic  liquid,  prepared  from 
herbs,  which  probably  has  a  tendency  to  keep  them  amiable 
in  confinement.  Towards  5  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the 
day  when  the  moon  is  at  the  full  the  inhabitants  gather  on 
the  walls  of  the  houses  near  the  "Sacred  Rock,"  a  tower 
of  basalt  standing  in  the  center  of  a  small  plaza  on  the  edge 
of  the  mesa  at  the  Waldi  pueblo.  Here  in  a  hole  in  the 
rocky  floor  of  the  plaza  next  the  houses,  under  a  conical 
grotto  of  cornstalks  or  aspen  boughs,  the  snakes  have  been 
placed,  the  doorway  to  the  hole  where  they  are  deposited 
being  covered  tightly  with  a  blanket.  First  come  the  dan 
cers  of  the  Antelope  gens  (their  principal  order),  their 
bodies  colored  black  with  white  snakes  outlined  upon  them, 
their  faces  half  white  and  half  black  and  the  sacred  kilt 
around  their  loins,  and  dance  around  the  sacred  rock,  rat 
tling  a  gourd  containing  pebbles  and  chanting  a  deep- toned 
prayer  for  rain .  Their  part  concluded  they  take  post  each 
side  of  the  grotto,  facing  out,  and  the  snake  dancers,  led  by 
a  stalwart  chief,  come  on.  Their  bodies,  girdles,  kilts,  leg 
gings  and  moccasins  are  all  dyed  a  rich  tan  color,  to  which 
their  black  hair,  trimmed  with  eagle  feathers,  lends  a  pro 
nounced  emphasis.  On  the  right  leg  of  each  of  the  thirty- 
six  dancers  is  a  hollow  tortoise  shell  with  bear's  claws  clack 
ing  against  it.  They  come  by  twos.  The  man  on  the 
right  is  armed  with  a  bunch  of  eagle  feathers,  and  appar 
ently  leads  and  guides  his  partner.  They  pass  several  times 
around  the  sacred  rock,  then  form  in  line  facing  the  Ante- 


8  BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

lope  clan  and  the  dancing  is  renewed,  accompanied  by  a 
monotonous  chant  and  emphasized  at  intervals  by  the 
dancers  springing  in  unison  on  the  right  leg  to  cause  a  simul 
taneous  rattling  of  the  tortoise  shells.  Again  they  form  in 
column,  and  arriving  at  the  grotto  the  dancer  on  the  left 
opens  the  door,  seizes  two  or  three  snakes,  places  them  in 
his  mouth,  their  heads  about  three  inches  from  his  face. 
The  column  now  re-forms  and  dances  around  the  rock,  the 
man  with  the  eagle  feathers — his  left  arm  locked  in  that  of 
the  snake-holder—keeping  the  snakes'  heads  constantly 
brushed  out  from  his  partner's  face.  After  several  times 
circling  the  sacred  rock  the  dancers  form  around  a  circle  of 
sacred  meal  and  cast  the  snakes  into  it;  a  half-way  around 
movement  is  then  quickly  performed,  when  the  dancers 
break  ranks  and  each  individual,  dipping  into  the  wrig 
gling,  writhing  mass  of  serpents,  seizes  three  or  four  by  their 
necks  between  his  fingers  and  starts  off  at  a  run,  some  to 
the  east,  some  to  the  west,  some  to  the  north,  some  to  the 
south;  down  the  precipitous  sides  of  the  cliffs  they  go, 
jumping  from  rock  to  rock,  and  having  reached  the  low 
lands  cast  the  snakes  loose  and  bid  them  go,  the  people's 
messengers  to  the  author  of  rain,  and  tell  him  how  much 
his  people  need  the  refreshing  showers.  When  they  return 
they  repair  to  the  Khiva  and  take  an  emetic  prepared  by  the 
priests;  this  removes  from  their  stomachs  any  remains  of 
the  antidote  to  snake  poison  taken  before  the  ceremony,  and 
after  a  rest  of  a  few  hours  they  are  ready  to  partake  of  the 
feast  prepared  for  them  by  the  Moqui  women.  Down  to 
this  evil-smelling  Khiva  have  been  sent  quantities  of  red, 
yellow,  blue  and  white  bread  and  all  the  choice  viands  of 
their  limited  cuisine,  and  here  until  morning  they  will 
feast  and  frolic  where  hitherto  they  have  fasted  and  prayed. 
The  ceremony  is  over;  from  Nature's  children  the  prayer 
has  sped  to  Nature's  God,  and  they  are  content  to  abide  the 
result.  It  is  a  picture  from  the  "ancient  of  days,"  cut  out 
from  the  limitless  past  and  let  down  into  this  age  of  steam 
and  electricity.  We  turn  away  from  it  with  regret,  won 
dering  how  long  it  will  be  before  the  advancing  wave  of 
a  more  aggressive  civilization  will  blot  it  from  the  face  of 
the  earth. 


THE  BASKET  OF  THE  KLICKITAT. 

MRS.  VELINA  p.  MOLSON. 

The  archaeologist  is  frequently  caused  to  halt  in  the 
reconstruction  of  ancient  society  by  the  ignorance  of  the 
arts  of  savages  around  him.  This  is  especially  true  of  an 
art  which  had  its  culmination  in  savagery  or  barbarism, 
and  which  began  to  decline  at  the  touch  of  civilization. 
This  may  be  said  of  the  Klickitat  baskets.  These  rare  and 
beautiful  baskets  are  made  by  the  different  tribes  belonging 
to  the  Shahaptian  linguistic  stock,  "a  name  based  on  Scou- 
ler's  report  to  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  in  1841,  and 
confirmed  by  later  scientific  men,  Gallatin,  Hale,  School- 
craft  and  Latham.  The  derivation  is  Salishan,  but  the 
meaning  is  unknown." 

The  habitat  was  along  the  waters  of  the  Columbia  and 
its  tributaries,  from  the  Cascade  mountains  on  the  west  to 
the  Bitter  Root  range  on  the  east,  and  from  46°  north  to  44° 
south,  or  what  is  now  Eastern  Washington  and  Northern 
Idaho. 

The  Klickitats  have  been  styled  the  * '  Iroquois  of  the 
Northwest."  They  were  marauders  and  robbers.  The 
very  word  Klickitat  means  "robber." 

One  of  their  favorite  haunts  in  time  gone  by  was  the 
Cascades  of  the  Columbia,  and  another  the  dalles  or  long 
narrows  of  the  Columbia.  They  were  a  constant  menace  to 
the  trappers  and  voyageurs  from  the  foundation  of  the 
Pacific  Fur  Company  in  1811,  and  continued  to  worry  and 
harass  the  pioneers  until  they  were  subdued  by  the  Yakima 
war  of  1856. 

The  Klickitats  are  fine-looking  and  intelligent  Indians; 
they  are  tall  and  clean  limbed,  and  as  they  followed  the 
chase  from  all  time  and  lived  in  a  higher  altitude,  they  were 
the  superiors  in  every  way  of  the  miserable-looking  tribes 
of  the  Willamette  valley  and  coast  Indians,  as  the  latter 
tribes  traveled  about  squatting  in  canoes,  subsisting  on  fish, 


TO         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

and  had  not  the  benefit  of  the  bracing  air  of  the  plateau  of 
the  Klickitats'  country. 

The  Klickitats  were  bold  and  fearless  riders.  Their 
marauding  journeys  carried  them  from  the  present  interna 
tional  boundary  line  on  the  north  to  Rogue  river  on  the 
south.  They  were  masters  everywhere  until  they  reached 
the  Rogue  River  tribes,  who  rightfully  gained  their  name 
through  cunningness,  or  until  they  reached  the  Indians  of 
the  plains,  on  the  eastern  watershed  of  the  Rocky  moun 
tains,  whither  they  went  on  annual  expeditions  to  trade  and 
gamble,  carrying  the  wampum  from  the  coast,  dried  salmon 
and  other  articles,  to  trade  for  dried  buffalo  meat  and  robes. 

They  went  down  to  the  ocean  on  the  west,  carrying 
the  wild  hemp  dried  and  twisted  into  neat  bundles  and 
much  sought  after  by  the  coast  Indians  for  fish  nets,  to 
exchange  for  the  wampum  or  dentalia,  a  small  shell  collected 
in  those  days  at  Nootka .  The  wampum  was  the  circulating 
medium,  and  Alexander  Ross  said  in  1814  three  fathoms 
bought  ten  beaver  skins. 

The  Klickitats  held  the  gateway  between  the  East  and 
West,  for  the  river  was  the  natural  and  only  easy  route  for 
passage  from  the  Western  valleys  to  the  Eastern  world. 

Their  domain  included  Mount  Adams  on  the  north  and 
Mount  Hood  on  the  south  of  the  Columbia  river,  but  terri 
torial  bounds  did  not  confine  them,  for  they  were  every 
where,  robbing,  trading,  horse-racing,  and  holding  under 
burdensome  tribute  many  lands  they  did  not  own. 

They  had  a  complete  and  euphonious  language  of  their 
own,  as  became  a  people  who  influenced  the  world  around 
them,  and  possessed  both  statesmen  and  warriors  whose 
enterprise  covered  so  broad  a  field. 

Before  the  white  man  came  to  occupy  and  pervert,  the 
Indians  were  numerous.  They  had  their  great  annual 
gatherings,  for  exchange  of  products  and  to  regulate  affairs. 
They  owned  their  special  privileges,  as  fisheries,  berry 
fields  and  camas  grounds,  and  hunted  their  own  territory. 
All  seasons  had  appropriate  duties.  It  was  no  light  or 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.          n 

brief  task  to  gather,  cure  and  store  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
the  fish  of  the  streams,  or  the  game  of  the  forests  lor  their 
winter  use. 

Besides  they  had  many  arts  and  manufactures  that 
became  almost  obsolete  when  they  could  purchase  from  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company  cloth,  manufactured  goods,  tools 
and  trinkets,  and  pay  for  them  by  hunting  animals  whose 
fur  was  in  demand. 

When  they  procured  firearms  bows  and  arrows  were 
soon  out  of  date  and  the  art  of  making  beautiful  arrow 
heads  became  a  lost  one,  and  finally  buckets  superseded 
baskets. 

Holding  the  natural  waterway  and  occupying  the  moun 
tains,  valleys  and  plains  of  the  eastern  country,  they  held 
the  key  to  the  Columbia  region,  the  gateway  between  the 
East  and  West.  They  maintained  intimate  tribal  relations 
with  both  sections  and  levied  tribute  on  all  west  of  the 
Cascades,  from  the  waters  of  Puget  Sound  on  the  north  to 
Rogue  river  on  the  south.  Through  all  this  region  they 
rode  rampant,  and  their  lodges  were  full  of  spoils  taken  in 
their  forays. 

South  of  the  Columbia  along  the  ocean  shore  and  foot 
hills,  there  is  still  a  well-worn  trail,  that  antedates  history, 
known  now  and  aforetime  as  the  "Klickitat  trail."  They 
usually  journeyed  south  by  that  trail,  but  for  peaceable 
reasons  they  traveled  north  by  the  Klamath  trail,  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Cascades,  to  their  home  of  homes,  the 
beautiful  Klickitat  valley. 

Basketry  is  an  art  which  may  be  called  '  'par  excellence" 
a  savage  art,  and  the  several  tribes  of  the  Shahaptian  stock 
controlled  it,  for  the  imbricated  basket  of  the  Klickitat 
surpasses  all  other  baskets  in  beauty  of  workmanship,  gen 
eral  contour,  harmonious  blendings  of  the  colors,  and,  what 
is  most  important,  utility  and  durability. 

The  tool  universally  used  in  the  manufacture  of  all 
baskets  is  a  bone  awl,  and  the  woman  is  generally  the 
maker. 


is         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

The  woman  of  all  untutored  and  uncivilized  nations  is 
a  deft  worker;  witness  the  delicate  drawn  work  of  the 
Mexicans,  the  rich  work  from  the  far  East,  the  bead  and 
basketry  of  the  North  American  Indians. 

To  gather,  prepare  and  manipulate  the  raw  material 
meant  time  and  arduous  labor. 

The  foundation  consists  of  the  roots  of  young  spruce 
and  cedar  trees;  it  is  macerated  and  torn  into  threadlike 
shreds,  and  soaked  for  weeks  and  months  in  water  to  rid 
it  of  any  superfluous  vegetable  matter  and  to  render  it 
strong  and  pliable.  The  ornamentation  is  almost  all  made 
of  ZerophyllumTenex,  which  is  commonly  called  "squaw's 
grass."  It  grows  on  the  east  side  of  the  Cascade  moun 
tains,  and  can  only  be  gathered  during  the  late  summer, 
when  the  snow  has  melted  and  the  grass  has  matured. 
This  grass  resembles  the  plant  of  garden  cultivation,  Yucca 
Filamentosa. 

The  broad,  swordlike  leaves  are  split  into  the  requisite 
width,  and  if  they  are  to  remain  the  natural  color,  an  ivory 
white,  they  are  soaked  in  water  only;  but  if  they  are  to  be 
dyed  they  are  soaked  in  mud  and  charcoal  for  black,  for 
brown  a  dye  made  from  the  willow  bark,  and  for  yellow  a 
longer  time  in  the  water. 

Sometimes  the  bast  or  inner  bark  of  the  cedar  tree  is 
dyed  black  instead  of  the  grass,  but  it  is  not  so  durable 
owing  to  its  short  fibrous  texture";  or  the  willow  bark  itself 
is  used  instead  of  dyeing  the  grass  brown;  but  the  willow 
looks  slightly  shriveled,  and  neither  presents  the  smooth 
surface  as  when  made  of  squaw's  grass,  although  only 
apparent  to  the  practiced  eye. 

The  mode  of  dyeing  was  handed  down  from  generation 
to  generation. 

After  these  preliminaries,  that  ran  through  weeks  and 
months,  the  deft  worker  seated  herself  upon  the  ground 
and  began  her  work,  either  by  a  spring  or  stream,  by  taking 
a  small  bunch  of  these  water-soaked  spruce  roots,  which, 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.          13 

when  tightly  compressed,  was  about  the  size  of  a  lead 
pencil . 

She  began  at  the  bottom  of  a  basket  by  a  coil,  tightly 
lashing  it  with  a  soaked  thong  of  spruce  root,  each  time 
piercing  the  stitch  in  the  preceding  row  with  the  bone  awl 
and  threading  the  spruce  through  and  tightly  drawing  it 
into  place,  thereby  making  a  locked  stitch  and  water  tight, 
so  that  if  it  were  possible  to  draw  out  the  coil  the  basket 
would  still  preserve  its  shape.  This  coiling  and  whipping 
is  continued  with  the  spruce  alone  until  the  bottom  is  com 
pleted,  for  the  decoration  seldom  if  ever  appears  on  the 
bottom;  if  it  does, -only  in  a  sparsely-made  pattern. 

When  the  last  coil  of  the  bottom  is  made,  then  the 
decoration  begins.  ,A  strip  of  the  grass  is  laid  on  and 
lashed  in  place,  then  turned  back  and  lashed  again,  each 
time  being  held  in  place  by  the  all- important  spruce  thong. 
This  lapping  back  and  forth  gives  it  the  name  "imbricated." 

Every  time  a  stitch  is  made  it  takes  the  circuits  of  the 
spruce  whipping  to  hold  it  in  place,  each  time  following  the 
puncture  made  by  the  bone  awl,  which  is  exceedingly  hard 
work.  One  round  of  a  large  basket  or  three  of  a  small  one 
is  a  hard  day's  work  for  an  experienced  basket  maker. 

The  different  colors  and  shades  are  introduced  accord 
ing  to  the  weaver's  fancy,  and  always  forming  a  complete 
and  well-designed  pattern,  oftentimes  intricate  and  elab 
orate.  When  the  requisite  number  of  stitches  of  one  color 
has  been  made,  the  grass  is  cut  off  and  laid  aside  until  it 
appears  again,  for  the  ornamentation  never  appears  on  the 
inner  side,  for  it  would  be  ruined  by  the  berry  juice  or 
hidden  by  the  contents. 

This  wearisome  labor  goes  on  round  after  round  until 
the  top  is  reached,  when  some  are  finished  smoothly  and 
plainly,  while  others  are  given  a  scallop.  The  last  round  of 
all  is  curiously  and  closely  interlaced,  with  the  ends  dexter 
ously  hidden  and  secured,  well  calculated  to  withstand 
rough  usage  over  mountains  and  plains,  on  the  backs  of 
women,  on  the  sides  of  horses  and  in  boats,  loaded  and 
unloaded,  times  without  number  and  lasting  a  lifetime. 


14         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

The  labor  of  making  a  basket  had  many  interruptions, 
for  the  basket  maker  gathered  the  fuel,  gathered  and  pre 
pared  the  food,  which  often  meant  excursions  to  the  moun 
tains  or  down  to  the  rivers.  She  tanned  and  fashioned  the 
skins  into  garments,  besides  caring  for  her  children,  for  the 
aboriginal  mother  is  well  known  to  be  an  unselfish  and 
tender  one. 

Some  baskets  are  covered  throughout  from  top  to  bot 
tom  with  the  decoration,  while  others  have  a  pattern 
appearing  only  at  intervals,  allowing  the  spruce  not  to 
intentionally  form  the  background.  The  figures  are  always 
triangular  or  angular,  never  round  in  the  original  shapes, 
as  the  circular  figure  meant  civilization. 

The  scallops  before  mentioned  were  for  utility,  for  if 
broken  and  worn  a  new  edge  could  be  made  more  easily 
than  a  solid  edge,  or  when  filled  and  covered  the  contents 
could  be  held  in  place  by  a  lashing  made  from  wild  hemp, 
and  passing  back  and  forth  through  the  scallops. 

The  shape  is  well  planned:  The  bottom  is  almost 
always  round,  then  it  flares  rapidly  at  first,  and  then  very 
gently  until  the  top  is  reached,  when  it  usually  converges 
toward  the  center,  for  if  it  flared  all  the  way  in  proportion 
to  the  beginning  the  mouth  would  be  so  large  that  the  con 
tents  would  be  lost;  but  even  the  strength  of  these  firm 
baskets  would  be  sorely  tested. 

One  is  rarely  seen  other  than  round;  if  so,  they  have 
an  oblong  base  and  top,  and  a  rare  one  has  a  lid.  This 
shape  was  in  imitation  of  the  trunks  seen  on  shipboard  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century,  and  copied  by  the  Cowlitz 
and  Lewis  river  tribes,  who  also  belong  to  the  parent  stock, 
Shahaptian;  but  this  shape  was  not  copied  by  the  tribes 
over  the  range. 

These  large  round  baskets  were  carried  on  women's 
backs,  and  are  today,  by  a  broad  strap  passing  around  the 
forehead  or  across  her  chest,  and  when  gathering  berries 
they  are  thrown  over  her  shoulder  and  into  the  basket;  or 
for  convenience  sake  a  small  one  is  secured  to  her  belt  in 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFC  COAST,  ETC.  15 

front,  and  emptied  at  intervals.  Her  hands  are  thus  left 
free  for  work,  for  she  is  ambidextrous. 

These  baskets  were  also  fastened  on  either  side  of  a 
horse  in  pannier  fashion,  and  the  woman  sought  her  camp 
or  the  nearest  settlement  either  mounted  on  the  same 
cay  use,  or  riding  another  and  driving  the  berry-burdened 
beast  before  her. 

The  Indians  say  that  the  berries  keep  sweeter  in  these 
baskets  than  in  a  metal  bucket,  and  as  they  are  watertight 
there  is  no  loss. 

The  baskets  are  prized  by  the  few  makers  that  are  left, 
and  by  their  children. 

And  thus  is  ended  a  work  of  art  by  these  rude  and 
untutored  people,  scorned  and  despised,  but  sought  for  by 
scientists  and  lovers  of  the  curious  and  beautiful. 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  NORTHWEST 
H.  K.  MCARTHUR. 

The  beginning  of  a  collection  is  accidental.  The  eye 
is  attracted  by  a  bit  of  artistic  coloring  or  quaint  design, 
and  we  become  its  possessor.  The  gift  of  a  friend  and 
mementoes  of  travel  are  subsequent  additions,  the  collection 
becomes  interesting  and  we  wish  to  enlarge  it.  It  may 
develop  into  a  fad  that  only  pleases  for  the  passing  moment, 
or  it  may  suggest  research  and  study  of  the  habitat  of  the 
maker,  materials  employed,  origin  of  design,  manner  of 
construction  and  utility  of  the  work,  and  it  becomes  most 
fascinating. 

In  the  limited  time  allotted  to  the  consideration  of  so 
comprehensive  a  subject,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  enter  into 
detail  of  materials  and  workmanship,  but  a  passing  mention 
cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest. 

The  baskets  made  by  the  Indians  of  the  western  part 
of  the  United  States  are  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world — 
beautiful  as  to  design  and  coloring  with  dyes  of  their  own 
manufacture — and  finest  as  to  skill  in  construction. 

One  cannot  but  be  impressed  most  deeply  by  the  strange 
incongruity  of  the  wretched  lives  of  degradation,  poverty, 
ignorance  and  roaming  habits  of  these  oftimes  homeless 
people  and  the  unsurpassed  results  of  their  skillful  and 
patient  labor.  Patience  is  the  one  characteristic  of  these 
toilers  of  an  uncivilized  race  of  which  we  are  profoundly 
conscious — the  patience  that  endures  much,  suffers  with 
stoical  indifference  and  uncomplaint,  and  which  leaves  its 
imprint  upon  their  pathetic  faces. 

The  labor  of  gathering  materials  and  preparing  them, 
before  the  work  of  construction  begins,  occupies  many 
months,  and  is  most  arduous.  The  weary  and  toilsome 
climb  to  distant  mountain  tops,  for  rare  and  beautiful 
grasses  that  only  adorn  the  face  of  nature  in  these  lofty 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.          17 

solitudes.  The  digging  of  certain  tenacious  roots  and  cut 
ting  of  twigs,  bark  and  fibre,  all  of  which  must  be  cured, 
made  into  proper  lengths  and  macerated  to  a  desired  flex 
ibility  before  being  woven  into  the  intricate  and  enduring 
beauty  of  baskets.  Coaxing  from  coy  Nature  her  secrets 
of  dyes,  whether  from  peculiarly  colored  earth,  charcoal, 
extracts  of  barks,  or  immersion  in  water. 

Who  of  us,  living  in  the  Willamette  valley,  have  not 
seen  some  ancient  dame  trudging  home,  with  dew-bedrag 
gled  skirts,  with  a  bundle  of  hazel  sticks  on  her  bent  shoul 
ders,  after  an  early  expedition  to  the  copse,  or,  it  may  be, 
grasses  and  roots  from  a  neighboring  >>wamp?  She  is 
ancient;  in  our  day,  because  the  beautiful  art  is  not  taught 
to  the  young  women ;  they  do  not  desire  to  know  it,  and  so 
the  work  is  relegated  to  only  the  aged,  who  are  skillful  and 
learned. 

Summer  is  the  season  for  this  preliminary  work.  The 
kindly  elements  favor  these  children  of  Nature,  the  twigs 
and  grasses  are  flexible,  the  barks  are  easily  peeled  and  are 
rich  in  juices,  and  the  store  of  materials  is  gathered  in. 

We  will  first  consider  the  work  of  the  Aleuts  of  Atter 
island,  the  most  westerly  point  of  Ounalaska  and  the  most 
remote  and  isolated  of  our  possessions.  In  this  little  sea 
girt  land,  scarcely  more  than  a  stepping-stone  to  Asia,  we 
discover  the  finest  weave  in  the  world  of  basketry.  The 
barabas  or  home  of  the  Aleuts  is  a  sodden  hut,  for  it  is  lit 
erally  made  of  sod.  The  roof  is  gay  with  brilliant  flowers 
during  the  long  days  of  their  brief  summer,  in  winter  it  is 
inconceivably  damp  and  dreary  in  the  interior  of  the  bara 
bas,  and  it  requires  many  months  of  these  days  of  scanty 
and  most  welcome  light  to  construct  a  single  basket.  Lux 
uriant  grass  springs  up  while  the  sunshine  lingers,  and  this 
is  gathered  and  dried  and  split  many  times.  There  is  little 
variety  of  shape  in  these  baskets;  the  finest  are  perfectly 
round,  having  covers  and  holding  about  a  pint,  and  perpen 
dicular;  the  others  are  much  larger,  have  no  covers,  and 
are  round  and  not  so  fine.  The  weave  of  the  small  ones  is 
so  fine  as  to  closely  resemble  gros  grain  silk,  the  number  of 


iS         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC 

stitches  to  the  square  inch  being  almost  double  that  of  any 
other  Indian  basketry.  No  dyes  are  used,  and  only  a  little 
ornamentation  of  colored  silk  thread  or  worsted  is  deftly 
introduced.  One  rarely  meets  another  style  of  Alaskan 
baskets  from  the  remote  interior  of  the  Northern  Yukon 
country.  The  only  specimen  here  is  a  tiny  affair  with  a  lid, 
though  in  the  very  small  collection  from  which  this  came 
there  were  jar-shaped  ones,  holding  a  gallon,  and  quite 
unlike  other  Alaska  work — it  is  of  the  coiled  pattern.  It  is 
simple,  without  ornamentation,  for  Nature  does  not  abound 
in  materials,  dyes,  or  suggestions  for  designs  in  this  bleak 
and  frozen  world. 

Other  baskets  of  great  beauty  are  made  in  Alaska,  and 
the  ones  with  which  we  are  the  most  familiar  are  those  of 
Thlinkit  stock.  Here,  too,  the  shape  is  quite  unvaried, 
being  round,  rarely  flaring,  but  of  many  sizes,  and,  like  the 
Aleuts,  the  flexible  bags  or  pouches  of  Eastern  Oregon  and 
those  of  Northern  California  and  Southern  Oregon,  are 
known  as  twined  basketry.  The  work  is  begun  in  the 
center  of  the  bottom,  with  spruce  roots,  warp  and  twine, 
the  former  radiating,  and  forming  the  foundation.  The 
cylindrical  portion  alone  is  ornamented  in  geometrical 
designs,  the  grasses  and  roots  being  in  the  dull  natural 
green  of  the  former,  sparingly  used,  black  and  the  most 
beautiful  and  harmonious  browns,  worked  only  half  through 
the  foundation  fabric. 

It  is  a  quaint  conceit  to  place  pebbles  in  a  most  skillfully 
constructed  hiding  place  within  the  lid;  the  rattle  of  these 
gives  warning  to  the  owner  when  one  less  dexterous  or 
industrious  would  purloin  the  treasure. 

There  are  more  simply  constructed  baskets  along  the 
coast;  they  are  mostly  flexible,  of  the  checkerboard  weave 
of  cedar  bast,  half  of  it  sometimes  dyed  black  to  accentu 
ate  the  pattern,  and  the  twilled  splint  of  white  birch  wood, 
and  the  bird  cage  of  spruce  roots.  These  two  are  of  the 
Clallam  Indians  (Selish  stock).  Next  come  the  Makah, 
more  commonly  known  to  us  as  the  gay  little  Neah  Bay 
baskets,  yet  quite  remarkable  as  being  very  fine,  and  com- 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.          19 

prising  the  three  distinct  weaves.  The  bottom  is  the  check 
erboard  pattern,  in  cedar  of  the  Bilhoolas;  the  twined 
pattern  comes  next,  and  the  bird  cage  pattern  of  the  Clal- 
lams.  This  weave — the  bird  cage — is  known  to  exist  in 
but  one  other  place  in  the  world,  and  that  is  on  the  Congo, 
where  the  men  make  the  baskets.  Another  quite  interest 
ing  fact  concerning  this  little  handful  of  people,  coming 
down  from  the  Wakashan  stock,  and  settled  about  Cape 
Flattery:  The  young  girls,  though  intelligent  pupils  in  the 
government  school,  are  proficient  basket  maskers.  The 
early  specimens  are  in  browns,  though  now  a  beautiful 
white  grass  is  used  (the  same  may  have  been  used  in  the 
former  times,  but  age  has  given  it  the  tender  brown),  and, 
like  the  Alaska  basket  of  the  present  day,  has  suffered  sad 
degeneracy  in  lorm  and  coloring.  The  vicious  and  persist 
ent  aniline  dyes  have  penetrated  these  remote  places;  the 
Indian  of  today  loves  not  the  labor  of  securing  her  own 
inimitable  dyes,  but  she  does  love  color,  and  so  we  buy  no 
more  lovely  old  browns  from  Alaska  and  Neah  Bay. 

These  tribes  also  make  cedar  bark  mats  of  the  check 
erboard  weave,  that  find  many  uses,  as  covering  for  house 
hold  effects,  carpets,  protection  from  the  weather,  and  not 
infrequently  a  winding  sheet,  when  their  dead  are  laid  to 
rest. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  speak  of  the  Klickitats  at  length. 
Of  all  known  basketry  it  is  the  most  arduous,  difficult  and 
skillful  of  construction,  as  has  been  explained  in  a  previous 
paper,  in  detail.  It  is  of  two-fold  weave,  the  coil  or  inner 
one,  and  the  imbricated  external  or  ornamental  one.  White 
is  the  color  of  this  strong  grass,  which  is  Zerophyllum 
Lenex,  or  "squaw  grass."  It  is  dyed  yellow,  brown  and 
black,  by  lying  in  water,  extract  of  willow  bark,  and  earth 
and  charcoal.  There  are  fine  specimens  of  this  enduring 
work  said  to  be  seventy-five  years  old.  Though  old  age,  berry 
juices  and  much  usage  have  robbed  some  of  all  their  beauty, 
one  detects  a  trace  of  the  fine  design  in  the  ornamentation. 
We  cannot  refrain  from  calling  attention  to  two  rare  ones 
here,  because  of  unusual  shape,  age  and  association.  The 


20         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

fine  round  one  was  purchased  by  the  late  Captain  John  H. 
Couch,  when  he  visited  these  shores  in  the  Chanamic,  in 
1847.  It  was  taken  to  Massachusetts,  and  has  since  doubled 
Cape  Horn  a  second  time  on  its  return  to  Oregon,  and  now 
belongs  to  Mrs.  F.  A.  Beck.  The  other,  a  small  oblong 
one,  belonging  to  Mrs.  Ankeny,  was  purchased  in  Oregon 
City  by  her  mother  in  1845. 

There  are  three  other  fine  baskets  from  over  the  border 
in  British  Columbia,  the  handiwork  of  Indians  of  the  Sha- 
haptian  stock,  differing  though,  from  the  Klickitats,  princi 
pally  in  shape.  One  is  beautifully  round,  as  an  apple,  and 
the  others  like  a  slightly  oblong  box,  flared  at  the  corners. 
They  are  quaintly  ornamented  with  two  or  three  rows  of  the 
imbricated  stitch,  and  then  two  rows  of  the  coil  left  exposed. 

The  Cay  uses,  Umatillas,  Nez  Perces  and  Wascos,  and 
other  tribes  east  of  the  Cascades,  do  not  make  stiff  baskets, 
but  being  much  in  the  saddle  their  baskets,  being  really 
pouches,  both  round  and  flat,  and  of  the  strongest,  most 
durable  workmanship  and  quite  flexible,  are  suited  to  use 
when  the  owner  rides. 

The  materials  are  often  split  corn  husks  and  the  wild 
hemp  of  the  Walla  Walla  valley.  Sometimes  a  fine  grayish 
green  appears,  but  here  too  the  color-loving  savage  intro 
duces  gay  worsted  threads. 

The  hazel  stick  is  very  interesting,  yet  we  who  are 
so  accustomed  to  its  homely  place  in  our  domestic  economy 
fail  to  appreciate  its  beauty .  Only  the  Indians  of  the  Atha 
pascan  stock,  known  to  us  as  Shastas,  excel  in  this  work. 
The  sticks  are  gathered  in  great  quantities,  the  best  ones 
from  ground  denuded  by  fire  of  its  natural  growth  of  fir  and 
hemlock,  where  they  spring  up  straight  and  strong  from  the 
rich  soil.  The  teeth  play  no  small  part  in  peeling  off  the 
bark. 

As  in  twined  basket  making,  these  are  worked  from  the 
center  of  the  bottom  outwardly — in  and  about  the  radiating 
sticks — no  ornamentation  nor  other  material  than  hazel 
being  employed.  Also,  as  in  all  basketry,  the  sticks,  grass 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.          21 

and  other  materials  are  kept  in  water,  when  not  in  the  hands 
of  the  worker;  during  the  time  of  construction.  The  hazel 
is  not  intricate  and  is  rapidly  made,  as  I  have  seen  pretty 
and  useful  ones  brought  in  while  the  early  country  breakfast 
lingered,  and  the  worker  offered  her  wares  and  begged  us  to 
remember  her  needs,  as  she  had  begun  the  basket  "tenas 
sun" — when  the  sun  was  small — the  day  was  new.  There 
is  only  utility  here,  though  it  assumes  a  variety  of  shapes 
and  sizes.  The  fine  sticks  are  used  in  the  small  handle  and 
useful  work  or  darning  baskets.  The  sticks  increase  in  size 
with  the  basket,  until  we  have  the  market,  laundry,  and 
lastly  the  great  clothes  hamper. 

We  now  come  to  the  tribes  inhabiting  the  country 
drained  by  the  Klamath  and  Sacramento  rivers — Southern 
Oregon  and  Northern  California,  and  known  as  Klamaths, 
Rogue  River,  Galice  Creek,  Coquille,  Umpqua,  Shasta, 
McCloud,  Pitt  and  Trinity  Rivers  and  Hoopa  Valley.  Cor 
rectly  speaking,  they  are  of  the  Athapascan  linguistic  stock. 
Their  work  is  a  most  excellent  example  of  the  twined  bas 
ketry,  in  which  grass  stems  and  fibres  are  deftly  twined, 
lapped  and  woven  in  and  out,  the  strong  radiating  roots 
beginning  always  in  the  center  of  the  bottom  and  working 
outwardly — adding  more  of  the  radiating  roots  or  foundation 
as  the  size  increases. 

The  Indians  about  Klamath  lake  and  the  marshes  make 
the  large  round  trays  or  plaques.  The  women  thrust  their 
feet  into  the  rude  sandals  made  of  tules,  wade  in  the  water, 
gather  the  wild  water  lily  or  wocus  and  throw  it  into  the 
deep,  conical  burden  basket  at  their  backs,  and  trudge  away 
to  camp.  Here  it  is  tossed  in  the  plaque  until  the  friendly 
breezes  winnow  the  chaff;  live  coals  are  then  thrown  in,  and 
it  is  vigorously  shaken,  to  prevent  burning,  until  the  grains 
are  a  rich  brown.  These  are  poured  into  a  flaring,  shallow 
basket,  minus  a  bottom,  placed  on  a  flat  rock,  and  with  a 
stone  pestle  the  patient  worker  reduces  this  to  meal.  The 
meal  is  poured  into  a  watertight  basket — the  aborigine's 
boiling  pot — water  added,  then  very  hot  stones  are  thrown 
in,  and  the  shaking  and  stirring  continues,  until  the  gentle 


22         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

savage  places  before  her  lord  a  most  toothsome  dish.  The 
women's  hats  and  various  baskets  of  the  Klamaths  proper 
are  pliable  or  flexible,  of  white  grass  and  the  black  of  the 
maiden's  hair  fern  stem,  in  zig-zag  and  geometric  pattern, 
and  sometimes  a  suggestion  of  the  V-shaped  flight  of  water 
fowl. 

Those  tribes  living  in  the  more  westerly  part  of  South 
ern  Oregon  and  Northern  California — we  usually,  for  conven 
ience,  speak  of  them  as  Shastas — continue  to  make  fine 
baskets,  as  well  as  many  other  tribes  in  California  and  Ari 
zona,  though  I  do  not  know  if  the  young  girls  are  taught 
the  industry.  It  is  more  likely  to  be  the  old  women,  and 
the  trader  has  taught  them  the  value  of  their  wares.  Their 
cooking  baskets  are  shallow,  dull  grayish  brown,  and  an 
ornamentation  of  the  white  grass.  The  wocus  shakers  and 
burden  baskets  are  more  elaborate,  and  the  buckets,  orna 
mental  baskets  for  sale  and  the  women's  hats  are  finer  and 
more  beautiful  still. 

The  fine  white  grass,  like  ivory  in  smoothness  and  tint, 
is  obtained  at  great  elevations,  their  excursions  leading  them 
to  the  summer  snow  line  of  Mount  Shasta.  The  brown  is 
obtained  by  dyeing  with  extract  of  alder  bark;  combined 
with  the  maiden  hair  fern  stem,  of  unfading  black  and 
enduring  beauty,  in  geometric  and  intricate  zig-zag  patterns, 
the  effect  is  most  pleasing.  The  ornamentation  appears  only 
slightly  in  the  inside,  and  the  ends  are  concealed  and  the 
finish  is  exquisitely  neat.  Those  of  Klamath  have  all  the 
pattern  showing  on  the  inside,  and  the  ends  of  grass  are 
exposed. 

Lastly  we  come  to  the  baskets  of  Mendocino  county, 
California,  exhibiting  the  greatest  variety  of  shape,  size, 
weave,  beauty  of  construction,  materials  employed,  and 
commercially  of  the  highest  value  in  basketry.  I  am  not 
qualified  to  speak  at  all  of  these  beautiful  baskets,  and  only 
refer  to  the  fine  specimens  here.  These  are  both  coiled  and 
twined  baskets,  and  at  least  three  weaves — the  bontouche, 
tsy  and  t;  brown  is  the  natural  color  of  the  grass,  and 
black,  which  adds  much  to  its  value. 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.          23 

All  are  round;  some  are  very  shallow,  others  concave 
and  very  deep;  many  quite  capacious"ones  curve  inward  at 
the  top,  and  others  are  small  at  the  base,  flare  rapidly,  then 
gradually  gather  in  toward  the  top,  the  opening  of  which 
are  small.  There  are  plaques  similar  to  those  farther  north 
— all  are  graceful  and  beautiful. 

This  means  endless  labor,  for  birds  are  snared,  that  no 
dainty  feather,  so  artistically  used  in  the  weaving,  will  be 
marred;  the  distant  mountains  yield  the  grass  and  the  sea 
shore  the  bits  of  shell;  beads  are  obtained  by  barter. 

The  Mendocino  county  and  Hoopa  valley  Indians  make 
cradles  for  the  infants  from  the  peeled  stems  of  tough  young 
trees  and  shrubs. 

One  cannot  but  be  impressed  by  the  rare  and  skillful 
combination  of  beauty  and  utility  in  these  baskets,  and  the 
wonderful  adaptability  to  their  various  needs.  The  dwellers 
of  the  north  coast  obtain  their  food  from  the  sea,  so  they 
make  the  loosely-woven  cedar  bark  receptacles  for  their 
stores,  both  fresh  and  dried.  The  open  mesh  of  the  clam 
basket,  of  a  coarse  grass,  which  permits  the  sea  water  to 
escape  as  the  weary  digger  trails  home  across  the  sands  at 
dawn,  with  a  breakfast  for  the  waiting  ones  beside  the  curl 
ing  smoke  of  the  campfire.  The  perfectly  watertight  boil 
ing  and  baking  baskets  of  the  Alaskans  and  Shastas. 

The  Klickitats  would  retain  the  luscious  juices  of  the 
berry,  and  resist  the  wear  and  tear  of  loading  and  carrying 
by  pony-back  and  canoe,  without  the  beautiful  ornamen 
tation,  which  is  as  enduring  as  the  basket.  Though  they 
are  savages,  they  love  this  bit  of  beauty  in  their  homely 
lives  of  drudgery.  The  storage  baskets  of  California  and 
Arizona  are  deep,  capacious  and  strong,  mostly  of  the  true 
classical  vase  outlines  and  proportions. 

The  strong,  flexible,  round  baskets  and  pouches  of  those 
tribes  much  in  the  saddle.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  enumer 
ate  the  thousand  and  one  uses  for  which  these  baskets  serve, 
by  the  campfire  and  on  the  march,  for  the  holding  of  spoil 
of  rod  and  gun,  and  their  few  simple  treasures. 


24         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

They  love  these  evidences  of  their  handiwork  and  skill, 
and  while  in  this  day  of  trade  and  barter  many  are  made  for 
sale,  the  old  basket  maker  only  parts  with  her  treasures 
because  old  age  has  robbed  her  of  the  power  of  gaining  the 
necessaries  of  life  by  hard  labor,  and  stern  want  looks  in  at 
the  uplifted  curtain  of  the  tepee. 

They  love  them,  and  though  their  uses  are  homely, 
they  weave  into  them  their  prayers  and  hopes,  their  impres 
sions  of  the  beautiful  world  of  Nature,  and  the  completed 
work  is  as  dear  to  them  as  the  canvas  of  an  artist,  when  the 
finished  masterpiece  brings  him  enduring  fame. 

The  savage  is  an  artist  pure  and  simple;  her  unlearned 
and  untutored  mind  seeks  her  designs  in  the  vivid  flash  of 
lightning,  the  fleecy  clouds,  the  seed  pods  of  plants,  the 
ripple  of  a  stream,  the  scales  of  a  fish,  the  graceful  interlac 
ing  of  twigs  and  stems,  and  the  flight  of  birds  across  the 
sky. 

Why  should  their  work  so  prized,  become  so  rare? 
The  commercial  value  alone,  should  appeal  to  the  powers 
that  be,  the  grasses  should  be  cultivated,  and  the  secrets  of 
dyes  understood ;  the  young  should  as  well  be  taught  that 
in  the  schools  as  the  trying  intricacies  of  the  less  congenial 
lace  making.  It  is  an  art  in  which  they  excel;  the  demand 
is  increasing,  and  the  supply  should  be  equal  to  it.  How 
deplorable,  that  our  enlightened  government  does  not  foster 
and  encourage  a  beautiful  and  valuable  industry  that  is  pass 
ing  away,  with  the  passing  of  this  generation! 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 


ALASKA. 

ARTICLES— Baskets,  Bags,  Caps,  Hats,  Pouches,  Bottles,  Bowls, 
Bead  Work,  Wood  and  Ivory  Earrings. 

MATERIALS— Made  of  cedar  roots,  with  varied  patterns  of  geo 
metrical  designs,  traced  chiefly  in  their  native 
dyes  of  browns,  red  and  black,  instead  of  the 
modern  dyes. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
D.  M.  Averill, 
Mrs.  W.  F.  Burrell, 
Mrs.  M.  P.  Deady, 
Mrs.  J.  P.  Dickson, 
Mrs.  Wm.  G.  Dillingham, 
Mrs.  T.  L.  Eliot, 
Miss  H.  Failing, 
Mrs.  J.  G.  Gauld, 
Mrs.  Hamilton  Geary, 
Mrs.  R.  Glisan, 
Mrs.  S.  J.  Henderson, 
Mrs.  A.  R.  Hill, 
Mrs.  W.  J.  Honeyman, 
Miss  Kapus, 


Mrs.  R.  Koehler, 

Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 

Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 

Mrs.  Merrill, 

Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 

The  Misses  Rodney, 

Mr.  C.  Spuhn, 

Mrs.  G.  L.  Story, 

Mrs.  C.  C.  Strong, 

Mrs.  L.  H.  Tarpley, 

Mrs.  H.  G.  Thompson, 

Mrs.  T.  B.  Trevett, 

Mrs.  W.  J.  Van  Rensselaer, 

Mrs.  R.  B.  Wilson, 

Mrs.  C.  E.  S.  Wood. 


ALEUTIAN  ISLANDS. 
(Aleuts  and  Eskimo.} 

ARTICLES— Baskets  and  Pouches. 

MATERIALS — Made  of  fine  white  grass,  some  with  covers,  round  in 
shape — the  finest  specimens  known  in  Basketry. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  H.  J.  Corbett, 
Mrs.  T.  L,.  Eliot, 


Mrs.  R.  Koehler, 
Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  L.  H.  Tarpley, 


BRITISH  COLUMBIA. 
(No.  i— Queen  Charlotte  Island.) 

ARTICLE— Basket 

EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  C.  F.  Swigert. 


26         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

(No.  *— Yale.) 
ARTICLES— Large,  Handsome,  Oblong  and  Round  Baskets. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  Vincent  Cook, 


Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
Mrs.  J.  My  rick. 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 

(No.  3—Flathead.} 
ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  I          Mrs.  G.  F.  Russell. 

Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 

WASHINGTON. 
(No.  i—Cowlitz  or  Klickitat.} 
ARTICLES— Largest  Baskets  made  in  Washington. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Miss  H.  Failing, 

Miss  Adams,  Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 

Mrs.  Levi  Ankeny,  Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 


Mrs.  F.  A.  Beck, 

Miss  A.  Breck, 

Mrs.  H.  H.  Buchanan, 


Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
Mrs.  G.  F.  Russell, 
Mrs.  H.  G.  Thompson. 


(No.  2—Neah  Bay—Makahs.) 
ARTICLES— Baskets  and  Mats. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Miss  Ella  DeHart, 
Miss  M.  H.  Effinger, 
Mrs.  T.  L.  Eliot, 
Miss  A.  Grant  (2), 
Mrs.  John  Gill  (i), 
Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 


Mrs.  W.  S.  Ladd, 
Miss  M .  E.  Lewis, 
Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
Rummelin  &  Sons, 
Mrs.  M.  E.  Street, 
Mrs.  C.  E.  S.  Wood. 


et  Sound.) 

ARTICLE— Clam  Basket. 
EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  W.  C.Johnson. 

(No.  4—Skagit.) 
ARTICLE— Basket. 

EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  John  Gill. 

OREGON. 

(No.  i—Grand  Ronde—Calapooia.) 
ARTICLE-Basket. 

EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  C.  F.  Swigert. 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFC  COAST,  ETC.          27 


(No.  2—Klamath.} 
ARTICLES— Baskets,  Caps,  Sandals,  Plaques. 

EKHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  B.  Ayer, 
Miss  Ella  DeHart, 
Mrs.  J.  G.  Gauld, 
Mrs.  S.  J.  Henderson, 
Miss  L.  Hughes, 


Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 
Mrs.  L,.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
Mrs.  J.  My  rick, 
Miss  M.  L,.  Whitehouse. 


(No.  J— Rogue  River— Athapascan.} 
ARTICLES— Baskets  and  Hampers  made  of  Hazel  Sticks. 

EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  M.  P.  Deady, 
Mrs.  W.  L.  Geary, 


Mrs.  A.  R.  Hill, 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
The  Misses  Rodney, 
Mrs.  J.  F.  Watson. 


(No.  4 — Nehalem.} 
ARTICLE— Basket. 

EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  L.  L,.  McArthur. 

(No.  j — Umatilla — Cayuse.) 


ARTICLES— Caps,  Bags. 

EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  F.  Burrell, 
Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 
Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 

(/ 

ARTICLES— Bark  Baskets. 
EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 


Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
Mrs.G.  F.  Russell, 
Mrs.  C.  E.  S.  Wood. 


6—Wasco.} 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  F.  P.  Mays. 


(N0%  7—YamhilL} 
ARTICLES—  Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  J.  F.  Watson. 

CALIFORNIA. 
(No.  i—Chico.} 
ARTICLES—  Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  R.  B.  Wilson. 


ARTICLES—  Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  B.  Ayer, 


(No.  2—  Digger.} 


Mrs.  K.  A.  J.  Mackenzie 
Mrs.  T.  B.  Trevett. 


28         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

(No.  3—Hoopa  Valley.') 

ARTICLES— Baskets,  Bowls,  Caps,  Cradles. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 


D.  M.  Averill, 
Miss  A.  Grant, 
Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 


Mrs.  W.  M.Molson, 
Mrs.  H.  G.  Thompson , 
Mrs.  J.  G.  Gauld. 


(No.  4— Shasta.) 
ARTICLES— Baskets,  Caps. 
EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 


Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 


Miss  C.  Teal. 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 

(No.  5—Toola  Hoola.) 
ARTICLES—  Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  L.  H.  Tarpley. 

Mrs.  L,.  L.  McArthur, 

(No.  6—  Trinity  River.) 
ARTICLE—  Basket. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Colonel  Jackson,  U.  S.  A. 


.  7—Ukiah.) 

ARTICLES—  Baskets  with  Feathers. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  L.  L-  McArthur, 

Mrs.  Vincent  Cook,  Mrs.  L.  H.  Tarpley. 

(Afc.  8—Yosemite.) 
ARTICLE—  Basket. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  J.  G.  Gauld. 

ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO. 
(No.  i—  Apache.) 

ARTICLES—  Baskets,  Sacred  Meal  Dishes,  Trays,  Granary  Baskets, 
Ollas. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  B.  Ayer, 
Mrs.  Vincent  Cook, 
Miss  H.  Failing, 
Colonel  Jackson,  U.  S.  A. 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
Mrs.  J.  B.  Montgomery, 
Mrs.  M.  E.  Street, 
Mrs.  H.  G.  Thompson. 


Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 

( No.  2 — Apache — Mescalero. ) 
ARTICLES— Trays  and  Bowls. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Colonel  Jackson,  U.  S.  A., 
Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 


Mrs.  L,.  L,.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson. 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.          29 

(No.  j — Moqui.} 

ARTICLES— Baskets,  Sacred  Meal  Dishes. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  (          Mrs   L,.  L.  McArthur, 


Colonel  Jackson,  U.  S.  A. 


Mr,.  W.  M.  Molson. 


Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 

(No.  4 — Navajo.) 
ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 

Colonel  Jackson,  U.  S.  A.  Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson. 

MEXICO. 

ARTICLES— Baskets,  some  covered  with  Skin. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Miss  M.  H.  Effinger, 
Miss  A.  Heitshu, 
Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Miss  L.  C.  Schuyler, 
Mrs.  R.  B.  Wilson, 
Mrs.  C.  E.  S.  Wood. 


ISLANDS  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 
(No.  i — Hawaiian  Islands.} 


ARTICLES— Baskets  of  Cocoanut  Palm. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  J.  G.  Gauld, 
Mrs.  John  Gill, 


Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 
Mrs  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  C.  F.  Swigert. 


(No.  2— Japan.} 

ARTICLES— Fine  Baskets  of  Bamboo. 
EXHIBITED  BY—  I          Mrs.  W.  S.  Ladd, 

Mrs.  P.  L,.  Cherry,  Mrs.  J.  B.  Thompson. 

(No.  3— Java.) 

ARTICLES— Baskets,  Dish,  very  fine  Plaited  Straw. 
EXHIBITED  BY—  I          Mrs.  W.  Mackintosh, 

Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur,  Mrs.  K.  A.  J.  Mackenzie. 

(No.  4 — New  Zealand— Maori.} 
ARTICLE— Basket. 

EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  J.  B.  Thompson. 

(No.  s— Philippine  Islands.) 

ARTICLES— Baskets,  Hat. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  i          Mrs.  John  Gill, 

Mrs.  P.  Iv.  Cherry,  Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson. 

(No.  6 — Pitcaim  Islands.) 
ARTICLE— Basket. 
EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  K.  A.  J.  Mackenzie. 


30         BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC. 

(No.  7 — Samoa.} 
ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  W.  V.  Smith, 


Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 
Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 


Mrs.  Zera  Snow, 
Mrs.  C.  F.  Swigert. 


Miss  L.  C.  Schuyler, 

(No.  8— Solomon  Islands.} 

ARTICLES— Scarf,  Apron  of  Shells. 
EXHIBITED  BY— Miss  Kapus. 

INDIAN  TERRITORY. 

( Choctaw — Arcadian — Oklahama. ) 

ARTICLES— Baskets,  Flour  Sieves,  Cradle. 
EXHIBITED  BY—  I      Mrs.  K.  Mackenzie. 

Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur,  I      Mrs.  J.  B.  Montgomery. 

ATLANTIC   COAST. 

(No.  i — Canada.} 

ARTICLES— Birch  Bark  Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY—  Mrs.  K.  A.  J.  Mackenzie, 


Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 


Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson. 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 

(No.  2 — Penobscot — Maine.} 
ARTICLES— Baskets  made  of  Sweet-Scented  Grass  and  Birch  Bark. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  Dillingham, 
Mrs.  T.  L.  Eliot, 
Mrs.  R.  Glisan, 


Mrs.  A.  R.  Hill, 

Mrs.  M.  E.  Lewis, 

Mrs.  W.  J.  Van  Rensselaer. 

Miss  C.  L.  Whitehouse. 


(No.  j — Iroquois.} 

ARTICLES — Gun  Case,  with  fine  Porcupine  Quill  Ornamentation. 
EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  K.  A.  J.  Mackenzie. 

(No.  4 — Niagara.} 
ARTICLES— Baskets,  Moccasins. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  A.  R.  Hill, 
Miss  M.  E   Lewis, 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  T.  B.  Trevett, 
Mrs.  J.  F.  Watson. 


(No.  5 — White  Mountains.} 
ARTICLES— Sweet-Scented  Grass  Baskets. 
EXHIBITED  BY—  I          Mrs.  A.  R.  Hill. 

Mrs.  W.  L.  Geary, 


BASKETRY  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST,  ETC.         31 


(No.  6 — Virginia.) 

ARTICLES— Baskets  of  Thin  Oak  Splints  made  by  Negroes. 
EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  L.  B.  Cox, 


Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur. 


SOUTH   AMERICA. 
ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  J.  G.  Gauld, 
Mrs.  B.  A.  Macdonald, 

AFRICA. 


Mrs.  B.  W.  Morris, 
Mrs.  R.  B.  Wilson. 


(Congo  River.) 
ARTICLES— Baskets,  Caps,  Plaques. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  F.  A.  Ager, 
Mrs.  C.  F.  Connor, 
Mrs.  J.  Failing, 


Mrs.  J.  G.  Gauld, 
Mrs.  L.  L.  McArthur, 
Mrs.  W.  M.  Molson, 
Mrs.  W.  V.  Smith. 


ASIA. 

(Arabia.} 
ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  C.  F.  Swigert. 


(India.} 


ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY— 
D.  M.  Averill, 
Miss  M.  E.  Lewis, 


ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  F.  Burrell, 


Mrs.  K.  A.J.  Mackenzie, 
Mrs.  W.  Macmasters. 


EUROPE. 

(France.) 

I          Mrs.  L.  H.  Tarpley. 
(Switzerland. ) 


ARTICLES— Baskets. 

EXHIBITED  BY— Mrs.  R.  Glisan. 


EXHIBITED  BY— 
Mrs.  W.  C.  Johnson, 


WAMPUM. 

Mrs.  J.  F.  Watson. 


Published  and  for  sale  by  The  J.  K.  Gill  Company,  Booksellers,  Portland,  Ore. 


